By Toutatis the sky might fall on your head!

In this morning's Derby Telegraph comes a report that litter picking volunteers were stopped from picking litter because they'd not received training in the use of the equipment. The tongs had been provided by the City Council. The action to stop the volunteers was confirmed by a lawyer for the council as Duty of Care because the council had supplied the equipment. This is arrant nonsense, classic "Health and Safety" rulings by administrators. What are they worried about? Perhaps training people to not wave the tongs in the direction of a thunder cloud in case the gods are tempted to send a thunder bolt?

Re: By Toutatis the sky might fall on your head!

naw its a ploy to stop unpaid people doing something someone else could get a contract to do and the elfn safety rule about trained to use provided equipment was the only way they could get them to cease the activities...clearly if volunteers do a decent job of clearing litter there's nothing for the convicts to do and no way to monetise the litter picking market, the next hurdle they will chuck down will be about sorting everything into different types of disposal and then issuing a cease order on thr grounds a contract has been tendered to group4 for them to provide a workforce of drunk n disorderliness granted a hundred hours of community service, a proper business plan will be drawn up, prices will be overinflated and targets will fail to be met as they struggle to organise the next brewery trip but at least all the shareholders will be getting rich